Okay, here is my belief about transgender people, especially transgender people. I think it is sad that there are people who have a medical issue and believe that they actually born in the wrong body. Why are people who are transgender considered in the same community with gay people? Is someone who is transgender living an alternative lifestyle like gay and bisexual people? I have no clue about transgender men and women and obviously have a prejudice about LGBT people. I would like to know how to overcome my prejudices towards the LGBT community, including transgender people.
It's a difficult situation, more so for families than being unbiased to a concept, or loving to a stranger. I have a cousin, born a male, married and divorced from three different women, had a son with one of them, but not considering his successes, dwelling on failures, and the influences of co-workers at a hospital including a doctor, and pursuing homosexual relationships, decided he was born in the wrong body, and went through the process as he could afford of becoming a woman (around his late 40's early 50's), though he had work done on his chest, as far as I know he could not afford the final operation. I use the word "he" because that is the word I used all my life with reference to well...him. I only knew him as a he. I have no idea how it effected his son, who got married while his dad was going through the process of becoming a woman. How would you even explain such a thing to family and friends? My dad became my mom? No, that's not quite accurate. It creates all sorts of awkwardness for those who only knew the..previous gender. He/she even changed his/her name...and ended up moving away from everyone but his/her mother and father. His/her father would not even acknowledge his/her sex change and preferred gender/name. But eventually he probably realized there was not much choice for him being his/her father. His/her mother is the sweetest woman you could ever meet, and both of his/her parents are strong devoted Christians. Personally, it blew my mind, it was difficult to wrap my mind around, this person was not a feminine like man, we're talking about a manly man, it's still difficult to believe, and it still saddens me, because I used to kind of look up to this guy, he/she is a lovely person, just a great person to be around. So I love him/her as a person, while not agreeing with his/her decisions to change his/her gender. The family relationship between him/her and me will never be the same, perhaps it is a mutual thing I do not know, but I know for me it is impossible to just forget about the man he used to be as though he never existed, and I know that person is still there, no matter how she may desire it to not be the case.
